Geography

A West African country bordering on the Gulf of
Guinea, Ghana is bounded by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso
to the north, Togo to the east, and the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It
compares in size to Oregon, and its largest river is the Volta.

Government

Constitutional democracy.

History

Several major civilizations flourished in the
general region of what is now Ghana. The ancient empire of Ghana (located
500 mi northwest of the contemporary state) reigned until the 13th
century. The Akan peoples established the next major civilization,
beginning in the 13th century, and then the Ashanti empire flourished in
the 18th and 19th centuries.

Called the Gold Coast, the area was first seen
by Portuguese traders in 1470. They were followed by the English (1553),
the Dutch (1595), and the Swedes (1640). British rule over the Gold Coast
began in 1820, but it was not until after quelling the severe resistance
of the Ashanti in 1901 that it was firmly established. British Togoland,
formerly a colony of Germany, was incorporated into Ghana by referendum in
1956. Created as an independent country on March 6, 1957, Ghana, as the
result of a plebiscite, became a republic on July 1, 1960.

Premier Kwame Nkrumah attempted to take
leadership of the Pan-African Movement, holding the All-African People's
Congress in his capital, Accra, in 1958 and organizing the Union of
African States with Guinea and Mali in 1961. But he oriented his country
toward the Soviet Union and China and built an autocratic rule over all
aspects of Ghanaian life. In Feb. 1966, while Nkrumah was visiting Beijing
and Hanoi, he was deposed by a military coup led by Gen. Emmanuel K.
Kotoka.